Day 24: Marathon!

May 13, Day 24: Mile 330.1-356.7

Miles Hiked: 26.6

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for a little small thing today, ICE! As I sat like a homeless person on a shaded piece of grass today sucking on a piece of ice, I couldn’t have been more content just savoring every bit of it. 

It was an early morning wake up, 5am to get out of camp early for a special treat this morning, 12 miles stood between me and a McDonald’s that sits right off the PCT as you cross Interstate 15 at Cajon Pass. It was a cool morning and the trail was fairly “easy”, in less than 4 hours I was sitting in the shade of tree, eating a breakfast sandwich enjoying and ice cold Coca Cola. 

I’m usually not the biggest soda fan, but I could not get enough. So much so, I went the the gas station next door, bought a bag of ice and two more Coca Cola’s and huge 2 liter of orange Gatorade to fill my water bottles up before walking back out on trail. Hiccups and I would sit in the shade just over an hour and then walked under I-15 then under the train tracks that parallel the interstate and began the never ending climb into the heat past Cajon Pass.

Two hours later and another 5.5 miles we were sitting at magic in the desert!  The Wrightwood Trail angels stock a huge water cache out in the middle of the desert and there were chairs to sit on. (Not sitting on the ground is magical!)

After another hour break our next destination was camp, another 9.5 miles up trail and uphill. It was 2pm and it would take every bit of the rest of the day for me to make it those 9.5 miles. I got to camp at 6:30 and just had my biggest day of hiking ever, just over a marathon… 26.6 miles!

Meet: Madison trail name Hiccups. She is a 25 yo seasoned thru hiker, having hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2018. She is from Florida, but currently lives in Austin Texas. She’s fast!  Most of the time I only keep up because of breaks, and I’ve learned from her that to get the 20+ mile days in you don’t stop hiking at 4pm.  She’s an aspiring elementary school teacher and from what I can tell will make a good one at that.